Startup Spotlight: Social media is key says director of one-of-a-kind gaming manufacturer

“BACK in the day,” seems an odd phrase for a 21 year-old to say, but Ben Lawton has enough experience under his belt to warrant its use.

This week’s spotlight is on Custom Controllers. Founder and director Mr Lawton came up with the idea when he was in school in 2007.

Games consoles such as Xbox and Playstation rake in millions, not only for the consoles but accessories and games as well, and Custom Controllers is the first UK business to tap into the demand for personalised gaming controllers.

Mr Lawton himself was an avid gamer when he realised demand for the niche gaming product was through the roof.

“Back then customised controllers could only be bought from America at really high prices. So at school I started doing it myself, ” he said.

He found out how to modify controllers, solder them, add graphics and add microchips to improve performance.

As a school he was making a “decent” amount of money, but the project was put on the backburner during college, where he quickly realised that standard retail jobs were not for him. After that he studied Business at Leeds Trinity, and has gone on to become one of the new university’s success stories.

At university, with spare time in abundance, he went back to his pet project at school.

“I wanted to set up my own business and went back to controllers because it was what I know. I knew how to set up my own business, and just thought: ‘I have to do this now.'”

Mr Lawton started employing people at university, teaching them to build controllers, but it wasn’t until that Christmas it became a viable business, as orders surged over the holiday period and their following on social media grew.

With 127,000 followers on Instagram and 60,000 on Twitter, Custom Controllers started gaining traction in the market, boosted by legions of fans online.
“Social media is massive to us,” said Mr Lawton. “It’s growth showed a trust in our brand and recognition that we were creating a product that people wanted to buy.”

Wanting to capitalise on this, Mr Lawton got in touch with YouTubers, who loved Custom Controllers products and put the fledgling business on the map – the 2016 version of celebrity endorsement.

In 2013, the business turned over £12,000. In just over two years, turnover soared to £250,000, with the vast majority (£180,000) coming in over the Christmas period. For 2015, the business is predicting £500,000 in turnover.

“We became the go-to guys for custom controllers in the UK. Our products are bought by the FA, and Nike and even footballers got in touch.” Now, even Microsoft and Sony have placed orders with the business which is based on Armley Road in Leeds, and Custom Controllers has signed a deal with Game, which will be featuring 350 products on their site.

“If they want a controller changing, they have to order and manufacture in batches of hundreds of thousands. Sometimes the bigger businesses only want a few hundred units, and that’s where we come in.”

He puts Custom Controllers’ meteoric rise down to social media, but is confident that Custom Controllers could have made it on a more traditional path.

“It would have still happened: we were the first in there, but progress would be a lot slower. Social media put our product in front of millions of people.”

Without a massive marketing budget, that is something some growing businesses can only dream of.

Demand has been such that Custom Controllers has outsourced manufacturing capabilities to China, with two factories over there manufacturing plastic moulds for controllers as well as giving them a paint job. The business still employs 24 in the UK.

“We have high standards and vigorous testing,” said Mr Lawton, who is also a model at London’s Elite modelling agency, “and a team that are really eager and motivated to work. It’s a young workforce – we have a laugh but we get the job done.

“And it’s been easy to recruit here, I’ve got a foot in the door with universities and students are really flexible workers, and everyone likes working here.”
“I take it as it comes,” said Mr Lawton of achieving success at a relatively young age. “Before, some people gave us a blank look. They didn’t understand the industry or why we do it – there are so many gamers out there all looking for our product.”

With a minimum of 300 runs for each design, and 550 designs and growing, they will have a lot to chose from, but Mr Lawton is striving for even more. “I hate anything that isn’t progressing,” he said, “and I don’t think I could not work – I’m one of those sad people that loves it!”

Next on the cards is expansion into Germany, opening a new site which has been built for the German audience, as well as signing a deal with DPD, and this entrepreneur looks set to conquer the continent just as he has conquered the UK.